Drying apparatus for laundries.



UNITED STATES Iatented August 1903 ATENT FFICE.

DRYING APPARATUS FOR LAUNDRIES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 736,274, dated August 11, 1903. Application filed May 24, 1902. Serial No. 108,760. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN LINGO, a citizen of theUnited States, residing in the cityand county of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in DryingApparatus for Laundries, of which the following is a speci fication.

In the conduct of modern laundries where a large numberof articles of clothingare operatedupon, it is a desideratum to conduct the operations by automatic machinery or appliances wherever possible, to the end of reducing the expense and shortening the time incident to the work.

In connection with modern laundries it is customary to provide a carrier upon which articles, after having been washed, are suspended, and by which they are carried through or about a heated apartment that they may become dry.

The carrier is, of course, provided with clothing engaging devices or means through which the Washed articles are supported by it.

It is the object 01": my invention to provide a simple and inexpensive means, by which the articles may be automatically stripped or removed from the traveling carrier at a selected point, my improved devices being of such character as will not occasion tearing of the articles.

In the accompanying drawings I show, and herein I describe, a good form of a convenientembodiment of my invention. It is to be understood, however, that other forms differing considerably in arrangement may be resorted to without departure from the spirit of my invention.

I) is a traveler consisting of a suspension bar arranged within and free for travel along the space between the two rails a, and at its upper end provided with a pair of rollers which rest and travel upon said rails.

c is a chain, to a link of which said suspension bar is attached.

It is, of course, to be understoodthat the rails are of very considerable length, that the chain is preferably of length corresponding to the rails, both said rails and said chain being usually endless, and that said chain is supported by a series of the travelers referred to, which are suitably spaced apart.

Any suitable means, not herein shown, may

be employed to occasion the continuous travel of the chain and its travelers and the articles carried by it.

The chain and its travelers may begenerally referred to as a traveling conveyer. It is manifest that the precise construction and arrangement of the parts of the traveling conveyer are not of the essence of the invention.

at are supporting arms connected with and depending from selected links of the chain, and said arms are in the form illustrated as to their lower ends provided with branch arms e,which extend from their opposite sides, in a direction transverse with respect to the axis of the adjacent portion of the chain, and are, as to their outer ends, respectively, equipped with downwardly and rearwardly extending fingers f, which fingers are preferably slightly dished in the center so as to be approximately V-shaped or U-shapedl.

' I refer to the fingersf as rearwardly extending because they extend from the branch arms in a direction the opposite of that in which the conveyer travels.

Upon the fingersfthe articles are after having been washed, suspended one by one in any convenient manner by an operative. In the drawings such articles are indicated by the letter 7;.

g is a stripper device, which I prefer to make in the general form of a plate or elongated strip, and which is so arranged that it extends beneath and transversely with respect to the traveling conveyer, in such position that as the conveyer travels the articles suspended from the fingers encounter said stripper device, and, being retained by it against further travel, while the conveyer continues to travel, said articles are caused to slip rearwardly along said fingers and drop from their rear ends.

I prefer to form said stripper bar as an approximately flat plate and set it at such inclination as to be approximately perpendicular to the axes of the rear portions of fingers.

I further prefer to provide recesses h in the edge of said stripper bar, through which the downwardly and rearwardly extending fingers will pass, to the end that the upwardly extending pair of bounding members or side walls of said recesses may, when articles of considerable bulk are mounted on said fingers, cooperate with the bottom portions of the recesses in engaging said articles and holding them against travel while the. fingers in the continued travel of the conveyer are withdrawn from them.

I do not, of course, restrict myself, in constructingapparatus embodying myinvention, and in supplying the upwardly extending members which form the respective sides of the'passages through which the rearwardly extending fingers are drawn,--to providing such members by forming them as edges or walls of recesses in a broad plate, nor do I restrict myself to the precise arrangement of said members illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

The bar, being stationary, will, as is manifest, as the conveyer travels along, be encountered, two by two as the apparatus shown happens to be organized, by the articles suspended from the conveyer, and will automatically strip said articles from the fingers, allowing them to drop by gravity upon the fioor or into any selected receptacle beneath.

When rails of the character illustrated in the drawings are employed, I prefer to support the bar 9 as to its respective ends in a pair of depending brackets j, conveniently formed as continua-tions of an angular frame It, the respective sides of which frame may be riveted fast to the side flanges of the rails.

When resort is had to this arrangement, as is manifest, the brackets will be rigidly supported with respect to the rails and afford a firm support for the bar g. Of course, where other forms of rails are employed, the connection between the brackets and the rails may be correspondingly varied, and of course said stripper device may be mounted on any desired support.

In order to adjust the angle of the fiat bar 9 to any desired set, and to enable its vertical adjustment with respect to the con veyer, I provide the respective bracket-arms with vertically extending slots m and provide the bar g with threaded extensions, projecting through said slots. Nuts mounted upon said threaded extensions, one on the inside of each bracket, and one, together also with a jamnut, if required, on the outside of each bracket, will operate to bind said bar in any selected position of vertical or rotative adjustment.

Where forms of traveling conveyors, other than that herein depicted, are employed, the arrangement of the stripper-bar may be varied accordingly.

In Figure 1 of the drawings, the traveling conveyeris supposed to be moving to the right, and the stripper-bar has just operated to slip from the fingerf the article 'i, and will strip another article t' from the succeeding finger f, as soon as in the travel of the conveyer said article encounters and is arrested by said bar.

I prefer that the relation between the fingersfand the recesses 72 should be as shown such that the lower portionsof said fingers will in passing the stripper-bar drag over or encounter the bottoms of said recesses.

As will be understood, the bottom and sides of a recess constitute article engaging members, each of which faces or confronts a side of a finger other than that or those confronted by another or the others of said members. The broad faced plate, with a recess or recesses in its upper edge, is, however, the preferred arrangement. The breadth of the portions adjacent to the recesses overcomes any tendency of the garments which encounter the stripping device to curl around it. I do not claim the inventorship of the traveling conveyer or of rearwardly extending fingers either broadly or in the form illustrated and described.

I do not, of course, restrict myself to passages or recesses of the precise form illustrated in the drawings. In the employment of the apparatus shown in the drawings, it is manifest that according to the form, bulk and disposition of the articles upon the fingers willdepend the number of edges or members of said recesses which will act against the articles to occasion their Withdrawal from the fingers.

Having thus described my invention, I claim 1. In a clothes drying apparatus, in combination with a traveling conveyer having a series of rearwardly extending fingers, a stripper consisting of a rigidly supported plate, extending beneath and transversely with respect to said conveyer and its fingers.

2. In a clothes drying apparatus, in combination, a traveling conveyer having a series of rearwardly extending fingers, a stripper device consisting of a bar extending transversely beneath said conveyer and having upwardly extending members between which said fingers pass, said bar in the region below the open space between said upwardly ex tending members having an approximately flat downwardly extending face.

3. In combination, in a clothes drying apparatus, a traveling conveyer having rearwardly extending fingers, a stripper consisting of a rigidly supported structure having an open topped passage into which said fingersextend in the travel of the conveyor.

4:. ha drying apparatus for a laundry, in combination, a traveling conveyer having a series of fingers for supporting garments, and

a stripper device provided with an open topped passage, through and against the botltom of which passage said fingers are drawn in the travel of the conveyer, substantially as set forth.

5. In a drying apparatus for a laundry, in combination with a traveling conveyer having a rearwardly extending finger, a stripper device having an open topped passage through and against the bottom of which said finger is drawn in the travel of the conveyer, and means for varying the vertical adj ustment of said stripper device, substantially as means for varying the vertical adjustment of said stripper device, and means for adjusting theinclination ofsaid stripper device, substantially as set forth.

8. In a drying apparatus for a laundry, a

traveling conveyer having two series of traveling conveyer, a transversely extendingclothes supporting devices, a stripper device arranged beneath said conveyer and having two open topped passages, into which respectively clothes supporting devices of the respective series extend in the travel of the conveyor.

9. In a drying apparatus for a laundry, a

stripper plate disposed beneath said conveyer, and means for adjusting the rotative set of said plate.

10. In a drying apparatus for laundries, a traveling conveyer, a transversely extending stripper plate disposed beneath said conveyer,

and means for adjusting the vertical set ofsaid plate. 1

11. In a drying apparatus for a laundry, in

combination, a traveling conveyor having two series of rearwardly extending fingers, a stripper device extending beneath and transversely with respect to said conveyer, and having two approximately U. -shaped passages, through and against the bottom of which passages said respective series of fingers are drawn in the travel of the conveyor.

12. In a drying apparatus foralaundry, in combination, a traveling conveyer having two series of rearwardly extending fingers, a stripper device extending beneath and transversely with respect to said conveyer, and having two approximately U -shaped passages, through and against the bottoms of which passages said respective series of fingers are drawn in the travel of the conveyer, and means for varying the vertical adjustment of said stripper device.

- 13. In a drying apparatus for a laundry,.in combination, a traveling conveyer having two series of rearwardly extending fingers, a stripper device extending beneath and transversely with respect to said conveyer, and having two approximately U shaped passages, through and against the bottom of which passages said respective series of fingers are drawnjn the travel of the conveyer, and means for varying the rotative adjustment of said stripper device.

14. In a drying apparatus for laundries, in combination, a pair of rails a conveyer provided with rearwardly extending fingers, a pair of brackets supported from the rails, a stripper device, the respective ends of which are entered in vertically extending slots in the respective brackets, and means for securing said ends in selected positions intermediate of the length of said slots, substantially as set forth.

15. In a drying apparatus for laundries, in combination, a pair of rails a conveyer pro vided with two series of rearwardly extending fingers, a pair of brackets supported from the rails, a stripper device, the respective ends of which are supported in, and free for rotative adjustment with respect to, the brackets, and means for securing said ends in various positions of rotative adjustment.

16. In a drying apparatus for laundries, in v t combination, a support, a conveyer support-,

ed upon and adapted to travel with respect to said support and having fingers, a pair of slotted brackets, a broad faced stripper device embodying recesses for said fingers and extending as to its respective ends within the slots of the brackets, and means for securing said device in said slots, substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as myinvention I have hereunto signed my name this 23d day of May, A. D. 1902.

JOHN LINGO.

In presence of-- S. SALOME BROOKE, F. NORMAN DIXON.

IIO 

